Nix Installer

Status: Beta

This is the official Nix installer maintained by the NixOS community. It is different from the Determinate Nix Installer and the nixos.org/nix/install shell script bundled with Nix.

If you're having a problem with installing Nix, make sure to report issues in the right place.

If you used sh <(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install), report issues at https://github.com/NixOS/nix/issues.

If you used the Determinate Nix Installer, report issues at https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer.

If you used this installer, report issues at https://github.com/NixOS/nix-installer/issues.

This one-liner is the quickest way to get started on any supported system:

curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install

To also enable the experimental flakes and nix-command features:

curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install --enable-flakes

Install Nix

You can install Nix with the default planner and options by running this script:

curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install

To download a platform-specific installer binary yourself:

curl -sL -o nix-installer https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer/nix-installer-x86_64-linux
chmod +x nix-installer
./nix-installer

This would install Nix on an x86_64-linux system but you can replace that with the system of your choice.

Planners

The Nix installer installs Nix by following a plan made by a planner. To review the available planners:

/nix/nix-installer install --help

Planners have their own options and defaults, sharing most of them in common. To see the options for Linux, for example:

/nix/nix-installer install linux --help

You can configure planners using environment variables or command arguments:

curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=nixbuilder sh -s -- install --nix-build-group-id 4000

# Alternatively:

NIX_BUILD_GROUP_NAME=nixbuilder ./nix-installer install --nix-build-group-id 4000

See Installer settings below for a full list of options.

Troubleshooting

Having problems with the installer? Consult our troubleshooting guide to see if your problem is covered.

Upgrading Nix

You can upgrade Nix by running:

sudo -i nix upgrade-nix

Alternatively, you can uninstall and reinstall with a different version of the installer.

Uninstalling

You can remove Nix installed by the Nix installer by running:

/nix/nix-installer uninstall

On GitLab

GitLab CI runners are typically Docker based and run as the root user. This means that systemd is not present, so you need to pass the --init none option to the Linux planner.

On the default GitLab runners, you can install Nix using this configuration:

test:
  script:
    - curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install linux --no-confirm --init none
    - . /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/profile.d/nix-daemon.sh
    - nix run nixpkgs#hello
    - nix profile install nixpkgs#hello
    - hello

If you are using different runners, the above example may need to be adjusted.

Without systemd (Linux only)

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

If you don't use systemd, you can still install Nix by explicitly specifying the linux plan and --init none:

curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install linux --init none

In a container

In Docker/Podman containers or WSL2 instances where an init (like systemd) is not present, pass --init none.

For containers (without an init):

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

# append this to the below dockerfiles
WORKDIR /src
# now flakes will work
RUN nix flake init
RUN nix flake lock

# Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl -y
RUN curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install linux \
  --extra-conf "sandbox = false" --enable-flakes --init none --no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
RUN nix run nixpkgs#hello

docker build -t ubuntu-with-nix .
docker run --rm -ti ubuntu-with-nix
docker rmi ubuntu-with-nix
# or
podman build -t ubuntu-with-nix .
podman run --rm -ti ubuntu-with-nix
podman rmi ubuntu-with-nix

For containers with a systemd init:

# Dockerfile
FROM ubuntu:latest
RUN apt update -y
RUN apt install curl systemd -y
RUN curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install linux \
  --extra-conf "sandbox = false" --enable-flakes --no-start-daemon --no-confirm
ENV PATH="${PATH}:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin"
RUN nix run nixpkgs#hello
CMD [ "/bin/systemd" ]

podman build -t ubuntu-systemd-with-nix .
IMAGE=$(podman create ubuntu-systemd-with-nix)
CONTAINER=$(podman start $IMAGE)
podman exec -ti $CONTAINER /bin/bash
podman rm -f $CONTAINER
podman rmi $IMAGE

With some container tools, such as Docker, you can omit sandbox = false. Omitting this will negatively impact compatibility with container tools like Podman.

In GitHub Actions

The nix installer action repository provides a GitHub Action for installing Nix in CI workflows. It uses this installer under the hood.

Basic usage:

- uses: NixOS/nix-installer-action@main

Install specific version:

- uses: NixOS/nix-installer-action@main
  with:
    installer-version: 2.33.3

No-init mode (for containers):

- uses: NixOS/nix-installer-action@main
  with:
    init: "no"

See the action inputs for all available options.

In WSL2

We strongly recommend first enabling systemd and then installing Nix as normal:

curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install

If WSLg is enabled, you can do things like open a Linux Firefox from Windows on Powershell:

wsl nix run nixpkgs#firefox

To use some OpenGL applications, you can use nixGL (note that some applications, such as blender, may not work):

wsl nix run --impure github:guibou/nixGL nix run nixpkgs#obs-studio

If enabling systemd is not an option, pass --init none at the end of the command:

sudo -i nix run nixpkgs#hello

curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install linux --init none

Skip confirmation

If you'd like to bypass the confirmation step, you can apply the --no-confirm flag:

curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer | sh -s -- install --no-confirm

This is especially useful when using the installer in non-interactive scripts.

Features

Existing Nix installation scripts do a good job but they are difficult to maintain.

Subtle differences in the shell implementations and tool used in the scripts make it difficult to make meaningful changes to the installer.

The Nix installer has numerous advantages over these options:

• It keeps an installation receipt for easy uninstallation
• It uses planners to create appropriate install plans for complicated targets—plans that you can review prior to installation
• It enables you to perform a best-effort reversion in the facing of a failed install
• It improves installation performance by maximizing parallel operations
• It supports an expanded test suite including "curing" cases (compatibility with Nix already on the system)
• It supports SELinux and OSTree-based distributions without asking users to make compromises
• It operates as a single, static binary with external dependencies such as OpenSSL, only calling existing system tools (like useradd) when necessary
• As a macOS remote build target, it ensures that Nix is present on the PATH

Nix community involvement

It has been wonderful to collaborate with other participants in the Nix Installer Working Group and members of the broader community. The working group maintains a foundation-owned fork of the installer.

Quirks

While the Nix Installer tries to provide a comprehensive and unquirky experience, there are unfortunately some issues that may require manual intervention or operator choices. See this document for information on resolving these issues:

• Using MacOS after removing Nix while nix-darwin was still installed, network requests fail

Building a binary

See this guide for instructions on building and distributing the installer yourself.

Accessing other versions

You can pin to a specific version of the Nix installer by modifying the download URL. Here's an example:

VERSION="v0.6.0"
curl -sSfL https://artifacts.nixos.org/nix-installer/tag/${VERSION}/nix-installer.sh | sh -s -- install

To discover which versions are available, or download the binaries for any release, check the Github Releases.

You can download and use these releases directly. Here's an example:

VERSION="v0.6.0"
ARCH="aarch64-linux"
curl -sSf -L https://github.com/NixOS/nix-installer/releases/download/${VERSION}/nix-installer-${ARCH} -o nix-installer
./nix-installer install

Each installer version has an associated supported nix version—if you pin the installer version, you'll also indirectly pin to the associated nix version.

You can also override the Nix version using --nix-package-url or NIX_INSTALLER_NIX_PACKAGE_URL= but doing this is not recommended since we haven't tested that combination. Here are some example Nix package URLs, including the Nix version, OS, and architecture:

• https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.18.1/nix-2.18.1-x86_64-linux.tar.xz
• https://releases.nixos.org/nix/nix-2.18.1/nix-2.18.1-aarch64-darwin.tar.xz

Installation differences

Differing from the nixos.org/nix/install script:

• an installation receipt (for uninstalling) is stored at /nix/receipt.json as well as a copy of the install binary at /nix/nix-installer
• ssl-cert-file is set in /etc/nix/nix.conf if the ssl-cert-file argument is used.

Installer settings

The Nix installer provides a variety of configuration settings, some general and some on a per-command basis. All settings are available via flags or via NIX_INSTALLER_* environment variables.

General settings

These settings are available for all commands.

Installation (nix-installer install)

You can also specify a planner with the first argument:

nix-installer install <plan>

Alternatively, you can use the NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN environment variable:

NIX_INSTALLER_PLAN=<plan> nix-installer install

Uninstalling (nix-installer uninstall)

You can also specify an installation receipt as the first argument (the default is /nix/receipt.json):

nix-installer uninstall /path/to/receipt.json

Planning (nix-installer plan)

Repairing (nix-installer repair)

Self-test (nix-installer self-test)

nix-installer self-test only takes general settings.